This Philippine Private Bank Works With Clients With Over P100 Million

A new private banking service by a local bank will cater to ultra-high net worth individuals and their families, people who have a net worth of at least P100 million.

UnionBank recently launched its new private banking service, which it will carry out in partnership with Swiss private bank Lombard Odier. Lombard Odier lends its experiences from 220 years of private banking and wealth management to the local bank. The service will give its clients “access to global investment strategies, unique wealth management solutions, and innovative digital platforms.”

Profiles of its potential clients possess a net worth of P100 million and above, which is also in anticipation of future wealth. “The number of people with more than $5 million will double in the next three to five years,” says Lombard Odier Asia CEO Vincent Magnenat.

“The trend is the money’s flowing back, particularly in Asia,” adds UnionBank president and CEO Edwin R. Bautista. These UHNWI would typically have to fly out and conduct business with overseas private banks, but the growing need for excellent private banking services and the increasing confidence in onshore transactions presented itself as an opportunity to the Aboitiz-owned bank. “We’re helping bring the funds back home,” says Bautista.

Head of UnionBank Private Banking Attorney Arlene Joan Tanjuaquio-Agustin explains the goal is to provide a platform that addresses “complicated financial solutions” and gives their clients world-class financial expertise on wealth management and global investments.

Here’s what else you need to know about UnionBank Private Banking: 

Clients no longer need to go to the bank. 

UHNWI no longer need to leave their homes to visit the bank. “We know that they’re very private people,” says Tanjuaquio-Agustin. A relationship manager will visit their offices and homes to open their accounts. 

Apart from the concentration on face-to-face interaction, there’s also the introduction of digital services.

“The digital platform that we’ll be giving our clients access to is a web-based portal,” she says. “it gives access to their investment portfolio anytime with analytics. They will see that their portfolio is distributed in certain asset classes where performance attribution per asset class is given to them. We will give the returns on their investments when they go to the portal, they’ll see that.” 

Clients can get real-time and on-demand data.

Instead of waiting to get monthly or bi-monthly reports, private banking clients will get real-time reports and daily market and economic updates. 

Asset management and allocation will be personalized.

The relationship managers get a dashboard of their own. There they’ll see the activity of all assets, what rebalancing they’ll need to do, and how they may manage the investments to fit the client’s objectives. This will help guide their interactions with their clients, as well. Right now there’s a number of 20 relationship managers in key cities and centers but there are already plans to increase.

The service will help prepare the next generation for their turn at the wheel.

One of the concerns of the Ultra-High Net Worth Parents is how they’re going to pass on their estate to their children. UnionBank’s Private Banking service offers estate planning, succession planning, and planning for philanthropic efforts. “Together with Lombard Odier, we will be leveraging that with the knowledge and sharing they will give us in terms of catering to the family,” she says. There will also be programs for the next generation and opportunities for networking, as well as a Next Generation series of events every third quarter of the year.